The highlight for us has been our first Healthwatch Dudley event, where we asked “How can we work together to build the best Healthwatch?’

We brought together over 70 people from 40 local organisations and participants were encouraged to submit ideas for discussion as part of an unconferenced approach. Over 30 discussion topics were suggested and then grouped together.

11 workshops followed with lots of energetic debate. There were lots of questions too, some of which were answered on the day and others which have been used to start a questions and answers page on this site.

As you can see, there has been lots happening here and there is plenty of activity in the pipeline. If you haven’t already done so, you might like to sign up to our mailing list. Very soon we will be revealing more information about our board, Healthwatch Hotspots and new exciting volunteer opportunities.

Finally, we hope you like our refreshed website. Our banner stars are people who support, or who are supported by Dudley Voices for Choice and who kindly posed for us. We would like to say a big thank you to them! Very soon we will be adding lots more local faces to show how we represent the voices of everyone in Dudley borough. If you or someone from a group that you represent would like to be the face of Healthwatch Dudley, we would love to hear from you.

Healthwatch Dudley is getting ready to be your new consumer champion for health and
social care services in Dudley borough – but we’re not quite there yet!

In the coming months events and activities will take place so that you can have your say and help to shape your new service.

An exciting launch event is being planned and we will post details here as soon as we can.

Healthwatch Dudley will begin to operate in April but in the mean time, if you would like to say hello, share your ideas or find out about volunteering opportunities, please get in touch here: hello@healthwatchdudley.co.uk

If you have any concerns about health and social care in Dudley borough before April 1st 2013, you can still contact Dudley LINk on 01384 886444.